I love Miles Davis' music... but that interview really turned me off him. All Miles had to do was show some kindness and empathy. I did wonder actually if simply Miles was autistic, and unaware how he actually need to behave. Miles could have given helpful constructive criticism at the same time as being warm , friendly , encouraging, but seemed unable to do that, or to empathise about what that kid must have gone away and felt.
This is to misunderstand Miles Davis. The point is that he treated the trumpet player with respect, as if he was taking to a trumpet player, not a child. He was engaging with a group of peers. The evidence for this is that he went on the hire the keyboard player, who was 16 years old, to play in his band a year later.
I hear what you're saying. :). People need to hear home truths that's for sure. Its the only way to improve. However, a bit of humour and warmth wouldn't go amiss would it? When I was a kid I played in a wind band. One weekend we had an ultra-sarcastic military guy conduct us. We reacted first with , WTF? This guy is really rude. It soon became apparent though that he had a heart of gold and could make us play really well. He cared about us, and his brusque manner was only skin deep and/or put on / an "act" . It all turned out to be pretty funny. "You do read music, do you?" was a memorable quip. We were like "can't believe he said that", but I think the recipient of that remark rather liked him in the end. It seemed to me Miles appeared not to know the people need that warmth. Which makes me wonder about autism. I must say, Herbie Hancock, who seems like a nice person and full of the warmth that Miles seems to lack, speaks warmly of Miles. So, maybe I should go away and re-read what Herbie had to say about Miles. ;)
Yeah I remember when I was younger his sharp style really turned me off too. But almost 30 years later now I just see him as a hard, uncompromising guy. I'm not idolizing like, I'm sure he was many times toxic and abusive, but now that I'm ~40 his style doesn't bother me personally at all. Would I put him in charge of junior software engineers? Nah. Would I play in his band? A thousand times yes, if I could hang (I can't).
